Journalist and correspondent Juan Williams speaking at Chautauqua Institution in 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, I was browsing Andrew Sullivan‘s Dish today when I came across a post about Fox News commentator Juan Williams‘ Wall Street Journal piece
about the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

Apparently, Juan is utterly confused about why African-Americans never protest black-on-black violence.

Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic  takes Williams apart:

Why Don’t Black People Protest ‘Black-on-Black Violence’?

As Coates correctly points out,

This is an interesting question. It’s also one that Juan Williams, who’s been writing about race for almost three decades, should be able to answer. Moreover, Williams is an award-winning journalist. Should he not know the answer, it would suit him to do his job and find out.

No matter.

What follows are a number of videos of just such protests happening in the last decade around the country.

Example:

http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=&station=wls&section=&mediaId=7416989&cdnRoot=http://cdn.abclocal.go.com&webRoot=http://abclocal.go.com&configPath=/util/&site=

Either way you look at it, Williams should be ashamed of himself.

If he simply failed to check the resources available at his fingertips, he’s a embarrassment as a journalist.

If he was making assertions he knew would bring comfort to the elderly white Americans who make us the vast majority of Fox News viewers, then he’s a hack following the well-worn script of the far right:

In the world of many Republicans, racism evaporated in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act.

The only REAL racism in America is that practiced by the half-dozen members of the New Black Panther Party, which explains why Fox devotes countless hours to covering their shenanigans.

Like all right-wing meme hacks, Williams never lets facts get in the way of a good story.

-Chris

Related articles

• TNC, Trayvon, and Juan (newyorker.com)
• The Trayvon Martin case shows US politics is rule by the dog whistle (newstatesman.com)

Compare and Contrast

Image via Wikipedia

It seems that MSNBC has taken swift action against one of it’s liberal stars for donating to three Democrats in the recent midterm campaign cycle.
Keith Olbermann SUSPENDED From MSNBC Indefinitely Without Pay

The major crime, it appears, is not requesting permission from NBC brass before doing so.

Over at another cable outlet, one that pretends to be “balance” for the super biased liberal media, standards are different.

Let’s take a look at the journalistic ethics of Fox News:

• Allowed Glenn Beck to attend, host and promote Tea Parties across the nation
• News Corp donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association
• Fox News sponsored several Tea Parties, providing millions in free advertising
• Fox “reporters” at the anti-Democrat protests were caught stage-managing the crowds to push a particular message
• The cable outlet coordinated attacks on specific Obama Administration employees by fabricating false stories (Media Matters has a nice summation, “2009: A Year of Fox News Political Activism”
• The Media Matters piece also mentions that they allowed sleaze operative Dick Morris to raise money on air.
• In coordination with lie-merchant Andrew Breitbart, Fox launched a sustained campaign of falsehoods and misinformation about ACORN

Anyway, you get the idea.

By the way, Fox personalities regularly make appearances to pump up the conservative base and donate money to conservative candidates like clockwork.

I’m counting down to hear the snickers and feigned outrage from the right. And I’m also sighing and rolling my eyes in advance of hearing:

“MSNBC is exactly like Fox!”

No it isn’t. Not even a little bit.

-Chris

Related Articles

• Keith Olbermann Suspended From MSNBC Over Political Donations (lezgetreal.com)
• Olbermann contributed to three Dems (politico.com)
• Olbermann’s checkbook (washingtonmonthly.com)

Anti-American Chamber

Image via Wikipedia

So let me get this straight.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is coming out as a strong advocate for outsourcing jobs overseas — so businesses don’t have to pay Americans to do the work:

“U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Funded By Top Offshoring Companies”

As suggested by the title of this excellent ThinkProgress article, dozens of foreign companies are donating money to the Chamber, which in turn has launched a $75 million campaign to attack Democrats on the issue of — you guessed it — job policy.

In fact, there are a number of companies (listed in the article) that exist only to outsource jobs to their respective countries.

Despite the petulant denials of the Chamber, public records show that money from foreign donors IS part of $75 million aimed at bringing Democrats down.

To be clear, money from foreign companies goes into the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account, which is the same account used to fund the attack campaign:

Chamber’s Latest Lie: Our Foreign Fundraising Program Isn’t Part Of The Chamber

On Tuesday, appearing on Fox News, Josten claimed that only 60 multinational companies are members of the Chamber, and it receives only $100,000 from its foreign affiliations. However, ThinkProgress blew this claim out of the water with proof that the Chamber is accepting at least $885,000 in direct donations from over 80 other foreign firms (in addition to the multinational members of the Chamber like BP, Siemens, and Shell Oil).

The Chamber refuses to disclose who is funding the effort, preferring to operate in a cloud of secrecy. We’re just supposed to take their word that nothing hinky is going on.

Nope. Sorry, that’s not going to happen. Recent polling is showing that the American people aren’t going to take the Chamber’s word for it, either.

But an important part of the story is being missed. The Chamber boasts proudly on it’s own website of working against the interests of working Americans:

Promotions to join the Chamber have included promises that foreign firms obtain “access to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and everything that it does” as well as pledges to help the foreign firms promote free trade policies in America. Chamber staffers from the Chamber’s Business Councils have claimed they help their foreign (and domestic) members wage a “two-front battle to knock down trade barriers abroad and keep our markets open at home.” Currently, the Chamber has attacked Democratic lawmakers for resisting a free trade deal with Korea.

We have an U.S.-based organization that takes foreign money to promote anti-American trade policies and sending jobs overseas.

So, we’ll see in a few weeks how much influence this despicable organization has on the electoral process.

-Chris

Jon Stewart vs. Fox News

Image via Wikipedia

Alternet is reposting a piece by Jason Easley’s PoliticusUSA.com blog about Jon Stewart’s threat to Fox News and the Republican media establishment.

Quite honestly, Stewart is one of the few folks who are doing the most basic journalism out there.

Republican positions depend on people being distracted and deeply enraged — about gossamer nothing issues. Under the cold light of facts, the Republican record and their myriad tangle of lies, dishonesty and hypocrisy are readily apparent to anyone with half a brain.

The rest of the corporate media establishment spend a lot of time being “fair” and pretending that all arguments carry equal weight — when a simple look at the facts (easily obtainable records, video, audio recordings) could easily cut to the heart of the matter.

Instead, the lazy, ratings-driven media creates a false “two-sides” dichotomy that bears not resemblance to reality.

Position A: The moon is a rocky object that orbits the earth

Position B: The moon is a hole cut in a big black sheet that makes up the sky

In the mainstream media, what we would see is an interview of the a supporter of position A, followed by something like this nonsense:

“…but detractors say that people who hold Position A are part of a NASA cover-up, and the moon is merely the light coming from behind the big sheet that wraps the earth. Back to you, Vance.”

And that’s assuming that there aren’t more sides to the story — as there are in most complex policy issues.

Stewart knows this game, and educates his audience to be media savvy.

Unlike Fox, the Daily Show host has a young audience that will continue to grow as the elderly who regularly view Murdoch’s monstrosity die off, leaving no one to replace them. The Colbert Report, which follows Stewart’s show, also has a vibrant, smart younger viewing demographic.

That’s why, Easley argues, Stewart and the hilarious Stephen Colbert are such a threat to Fox:

Fox News has made no secret of their distaste for Colbert, and especially Jon Stewart, and it is pretty obvious why. Colbert and Stewart are educating an entire generation of younger viewers to critically think about what they see in the media. The long term health of Fox News is going to depend on their ability to attract and retain younger viewers. These are the same viewers that are watching Jon Stewart expose and mock Fox News on a nightly basis. This is why FNC goes out of it’s way to impugn the credibility of Stewart anytime they can.

This is a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dismal mediascape.

The Republican war on science and intellectualism has taken its toll, and the consumers of right-wing pabulum often display pride in their ignorance and lack of education.

For those in the reality-based community, the nation would be better served to develop serious news sources that use the reporting basics Stewart uses to good effect on his nightly comedy program.

Truth and facts are a killer to failed Republican ideas. And they know it.

-Chris

Related Articles

• Jon Stewart Highlights Anti-Muslim Bigotry at Fox News (redstateprogressive.com)
• Jon Stewart Skewers Fox News And MSNBC For Skewed Coverage Of President Obama (mediaite.com)
• Jon Stewart Vs. Fox News: Media Fighting Fair [Media] (gawker.com)